Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Now that another month has come and gone, let's take a look at the books I read last month.

1. The Unlicensed Magician, by Kelly Barnhill
2. Child of Flame, by Kate Elliott
3. A Song for No Man's Land, by Andy Remic
4. In the Hand of the Goddess, by Tamora Pierce
5. Penric's Demon, by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. There Will Be War: Volume X, by Jerry Pournelle (editor)
7. Zero K, by Don DeLillo
8. East Side Stories, by Joseph Rodriguez
9. The Emperor's Railroad, by Guy Haley
10. The Fireman, by Joe Hill
11. I Know What I'm Doing, by Jen Kirkman
12. End of Watch, by Stephen King
13. Rise of the Rocket Girls, by Nathalia Holt

Best Book of the Month: Have you read the new Joe Hill novel? I didn't want The Fireman to end.

Disappointment of the Month: I've generally been a huge fan of Tor.com Publishing's novella line, and even the misses were solid efforts, but I just could not get into A Song for No Man's Land. WWI set trench warfare with werewolves should be something I'd dig into, but not this one. Despite my desire to read the entire line, I might be passing on Remic's forthcoming sequels.

Discovery of the Month: Nathalia Holt's look at the women who were doing the work of computers before there were actually computers at Jet Propulsion Labs before NASA was even a glimmer and rocketry was almost fringe science is something I want more of. I loved reading the stories of these women who helped build the space program through their work.

Worth Noting: Though he is noted for finishing otherwise great novels with endings that sort of fizzle out, Stephen King nailed a fairly note perfect conclusion to both End of Watch the novel as well as the overall Bill Hodges trilogy.

Gender Breakdown: 6 of the 13 books I read in June were written by women, which brings me to a perfectly even 43 out of 86 for the year. That sticks me right at 50%, which is a nice percentage to have. Since the only real goal that I have is to keep the
number
near a 50/50 split, I have finished the first six months of the year holding that line.